Here are some techniques to use for your next email marketing campaign: a catchy subject line, rendering headlines in text, placing multiple call-to-actions on the page, keeping content short, mobile friendly code, and gauging the right time to send the email.
Given the instant reporting feature available for email campaigns, many marketers consider it safer than traditional direct mail.
However, when you examine how email is read by a user, it is an assembly of delicate linkages. At each junction, readers are asking themselves 'Do I really have to read on?'. Give them a reason not to, and you lose the reader.
There are five linkages to consider when putting together an email campaign.
- A catchy subject line
- Rendering headlines in text
- Placing multiple call-to-actions on the page
- Mobile friendly code
- Concise content
A catchy subject line
Avoid literal, corporate subject lines like 'newsletter'. Nothing turns your audience off faster. State the benefit, or include a call to action in the subject line. Make sure your subject line is shorter than 50 characters, or risk being truncated by some email clients.
Place more thought in the subject line if the brand has low awareness. Placing the person's name in the email subject line can also get their attention.
Visualise the subject line. Place it in situ. Judge how it will be read in the receiver's inbox, compared to the rest of the clutter you can expect your audience to receive.
Render headlines in text
Call-to-actions and headlines should be rendered, if possible, as text. Nothing important should be presented as an image. There is a good reason for this. Most email clients are set up by default to not download images automatically. This is a barrier and requires an extra click to see content.
Some claim alt tags counter this barrier. However, you can't control the size of the alt tag display, and in some email clients, alt tag text displays very small. Irrespective of the type of font, headlines need to be set 24 points or larger to get noticed.
Alt tags may display your image headline in 9 point - not very effective.
By trading away non-PC font, you can show more content, before requiring the user to download images.
Include more than one call-to-action
In a study we did a few months ago on button recognition, Firestarter discovered some people miss buttons on pages. People read web pages, focusing attention in a small area, and miss extraneous elements.
Placing one large call-to-action at the bottom is a good idea, but also add them in the body as text links. For many, underlined text is the cue to click.
Also, try placing one at the top right of the page, preferably surrounded in white space. With the arrival of Outlook 2007, the default preview pane cuts off the body of the email. For those who never get to opening the email, they can still see a button and click-through.
Mobile friendly code
Html email has many aesthetic advantages. Buttons look smooth and images are pleasing to the eye. However, HTML places a barrier in front of mobile users. Some do not display at all, while others take too long to download graphics.
Mobile is becoming the preference for many professionals to read email. If a high percentage of your database use mobile to access email, make sure the code complies with WC3 standards, and is 100% compliant for xhtml.
Check out
http://validator.w3.org/ to learn more.
Keep content concise
Aim to get users from their email client, to a website, in the shortest possible time. Consider not sending html emails at all. Offer a few lines of text with a single link. Inboxes do more than receive email. They are a private work space. People like them simple and clean, so they can get work done efficiently.
Imagine email as the transition, not the destination. Recipients should not spend too long evaluating the mail. So remove any obstacles like long paragraphs, large images which occupy too much real estate and pages with download sizes larger than 50kb.
The reason is simple. Internet browsers can support richer, more interactive content, than could ever served through an email client like Outlook. By placing too much in the email, you demand too much of their time, and they won't click through.
Click-through rates, not open rates, are what count. With clicks to your site, you increase search traffic and the recipient is likely to begin reading additional pages.
Like Malcolm Gladwell states in
Blink, people don't need too much information. It burdens them. They just need a 'thin slice' - enough to make a split second decision to commit a click.
Calculating when to drop email
Be very precise about what time of the day, or day of the week, to execute an email drop. Marketers spend time creating well-written messages, only to neglect the science. Remember that email is interruptive. Interrupt the recipient at the wrong time, and open rates reduce.
Mondays are normally a bad time to send mail to professionals. They delete mail which has arrived over the weekend. Wednesdays and Thursdays, between 10am-12noon is usually a good time. They are at their desk, and attentive.
If your list comprises of personal email addresses like gmail and Yahoo!, they are more likely to check these on weekends. As such, Fridays become a good time to mail.
Response rates on email campaigns
Click-through rates are difficult to predict. There are many variables. For open rates there are some benchmark statistics. For a warm database, ie recipients who know you and have opted in, you can achieve open rates as high as 50-60%.
Cold databases behave dramatically differently. 5% is a good open rate.
Leave any campaign open for at least a week, but expect the majority of readership to occur within the first two days.
Alternatives to email marketing
Consider RSS, gadgets or widgets to deliver content. If you are a believer of permission marketing, you'll understand why these media make more sense long term.
Click here to read about alternatives to email marketing.
